They
were therefore fined: Childe L50; Smith L40; Maverick, because he had not
yet appealed, L10; and the others L30 each; three magistrates dissented.
Childe at once began hasty preparations to sail. To prevent him Winthrop
called the assistants together, without, however, giving the dissenting
magistrates notice, and arranged to have him arrested and searched.
One striking characteristic of the theocracy was its love for inflicting
mental suffering upon its victims. The same malicious vindictiveness which
sent Morton to sea in sight of his blazing home, and which imprisoned Anne
Hutchinson in the house of her bitterest enemy, now suggested a scheme for
making Childe endure the pangs of disappointment, by allowing him to
embark, and then seizing him as the ship was setting sail. And though the
plan miscarried, and the arrest had to be made the night before, yet even
as it was the prisoner took his confinement very "grievously, but he could
not help it." [Footnote: Winthrop, ii. 294.]
Nothing criminating was found in his possession, but in Dand's study,
which was ransacked, copies of two petitions were discovered, with a
number of queries relating to certain legal aspects of the charter, and
intended to be submitted to the Commissioners for the Plantations at
London.
These petitions were substantially those already presented, except that,
by way of preamble, the story of the trial was told; and how the ministers
"did revile them, &c.
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